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Bradford’s Capital Realism
A study in Capital Landscapes & Valuation of Unoccupied Space
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[Re_Map] Group 5 Olivia Taylor Rachel Patrick-Patel Ryan Safa Sam Higgins Charlie Kentish
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Contents Group 5 Bradford
Brief & Narrative Site Panorama Narrative to Bradford Mapping Theoretical Position Bradford in Numbers Framework to Project Area of Study Precedent Study- Gordon Matta-Clark Precedent Study- Rachel Whiteread Precedent Study- Nottingham Caves Precedent Study- Philip DuJardin Precedent Study- Newark Precedent Study- Detroit Housing Exploration Intentions
08 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32
Site Mapping & Analysis Historical Context Demolished Buildings 1800-Present Historical Context Socioeconomic Context_Macro Scale Economic Analysis Socioeconomic Context_Meso Scale Social Profile UDP Analysis Urban Fabric City Value Relative Build-Up Voronoi Analysis Voronoi Analysis
36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
Site Data Processing Study Area Economic Justification Westfield Historic Context Comparative Scale Studies Westfield Site Statistics Building Typology Study Data Set Westfield Area Comparison Study Reconfiguration of Space Building Typology Studies Economic Landscape Site Capital Future Scenarios Future Scenarios Westfield Capital
64 66 68 70-76 78 80 82 84 86 88-102 104 106 108 110 112
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Intervention On Site Theory Occupy Wastefield Site Intervention Concept SIte Plan Installation Process Installation Process Public Response
116 118 120 122 124 126 128
Presentation & Evaluation Website Development Studio Installation Studio Installation : Construction VPT Studio Installation Conclusion + Evaluation Future of Bradford References Appendix
132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146
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Brief & Narrative
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Site Panorama Westfield Site Bradford
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Narrative to Bradford Mapping Contextualising Mapping in Bradford
Bradford poet Joolz Denby aptly sets the context to begin the study in Bradford. In this small extract of the poem Denby describes how the cities historical buildings have been changed into coffee shops and bookshops. She continues to allude to how the remnants of its past glory at its industrial prime have become wind-scoured canyons that stretch throughout the town. Denby highlights the voids within city and the embodied history that is within. This extract has been a contextual ground to begin this mapping process.
Bradford .........I go to the Wool Exchange, that Temple to the trade that made the city famous; high up under the canopy of its arching, ribbed roof that vaults to a ridge like a mediaeval galleon upturned, and beached on a city street, painted wooden archangels crowned in antique gold pray with knotted, steepled hands. Once they were mute witnesses to the swirl and play of money on the trading floor beneath them, now the city seraphim watch ordinary people buying books and drinking coffee; but they don’t mind - they stretch their stiff, gilded wings over everyone, young and old, and we’re all in their charge. And I sit down for a minute, amongst the books and think of the town, stretching out and away from here; dark and bright, beautiful and ugly, the high-sided wind-scoured canyons of the deserted mills telling their silent stories of what has been and what will be; the deaths, the births, the fighting and the love, all the humanity of it, gathered from every place in the world, and all of us, everything, under the infinite night-sky now, [(c) Joolz Denby, 2002]
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Theoretical Position Understanding the Post Industrial City
In Consuming Cities of 2004, Steven & Malcolm Miles describe how many Post industrial Cities within the UK have transformed from ‘a cities of production to a cities of consumption’. They assert the fact that consumption is a positive social change, however they also raise the question of the degree to which consumption has impacted the urban city centre and the effects this has on everyday life. Phil Jones and James Evans in Urban Regeneration in the UK of 2008 state that regeneration is ‘profoundly transforming our urban areas, both in terms of their appearance and the ways in which we live in them’. Most recently, in Urban Maps of 2011, Richard Brook and Nick Dunn describe how the ‘aesthetic as a definable quality has expanded, the notion of space is no longer bound by quantifiable rules and must be subject to shifting definitions from external forces driven by consumption’. The urban regeneration of Bradford City Centre has failed to do what many other Post Industrial Cities have done in creating a spectacular consumptive experience that promotes consumption. Due to economic decline and an unsustainable business model the Westfield Site has remained vacant for almost 10 years. The result is an empty City Centre where social life struggles to develop between inhabitants. In The Practices of Everyday Life of 1980, Michel de Certaeu states that spatial practices structure the determining conditions of social life. However this raises the critique of whether capitalism has manipulated social activity and is redefining social space. David Harvey asserts this notion when he states in Urbanisation of the Capital that ‘the system of capitalism shapes spatial organisation and continuously revolutionises the urban fabric’. This is again apparent in Bradford as capital driven urbanisation has led to the current urban situation within the city. This project will highlight the voids within the Bradford and expose the extent of unoccupied space within the city centre. The Westfield development has been blamed for the empty city centre of Bradford and highlights how unsustainable a new shopping centre is for the regeneration of Bradford City Centre. Westfield are struggling to secure more than a handful of large name brands to occupy the store which has resulted in further delays. Lefebvre supports Harvey when he describes how the urban environment is a product of prevailing economic conditions. ‘Space’ according to Lefebvre does not simply exist, but is subject to a continued redefinition by economic conditions. He declares that each method of production generates its own conception of space and that the transition from one economic cycle to the next produces new architectural styles and typologies, illustrated in Bradford by the changing urban fabric and typology of the city centre. Bradford is an extreme example of this as the economic conditions have literally caused a huge ‘hole in the city centre’ .
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Bradford in Numbers Understanding the Post Industrial City
- It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, 8.6 miles west of Leeds, and 16 miles northwest of Wakefield. - Bradford has a population of 293,717, fourteenth largest conurbation. - During the 1820s and 1830s there was immigration from Germany. Census Information: -The median age is 34.8 years -Nearly 23% of the population are under 16 (compared to only 19% regionally and nationally) -The population is split 49.4% male to 50.6% female -Bradford’s population increased by 5,400 (1.1%) between 2008 and 2009, compared to growth of 0.8% across the Yorkshire & Humber region and 0.7% across England and Wales. -Bradford is ranked 63rd out of 342 local authorities for percentage growth in England and Wales between mid-2004 to mid-2009. -Population density is 1,383 persons per square kilometre Weather: -In an ‘average’ year, the warmest day should attain a temperature of 27.5 °C, with a total of 6 days rising to a maximum of 25.1 °C or above. -Rainfall averages around 870mm per year with over 1mm falling on 139 days. - Within the city district there are 37 parks and gardens. Economy: - In 2011 Plans to regenerate Bradford city centre, was given a boost as Bradford Council secured £17.6 million of regional growth funding from the government, which it will match to create a £35 million “growth zone”. - In 2012 retail giant Freeman Grattan Holdings secured a deal to open a new head office and house around 300 staff in the centre of Bradford, on the edge of Little Germany. -The student population is over 10,300 students. 22% of students are foreign, and come from over 110 different countries. - The university is currently undergoing a £84 million redevelopment programme - Bradford Football Club was founded in 1903. They won the FA Cup in 1911, its only major honour.
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Framework to Project
Flow Diagram demonstrating Project Development
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Project Map
Diagram shows development and progression of project
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Area of Study
Understanding the Post Industrial City
Bradford in UK Context
Distance from London- 200 Miles Distance from Edinburgh- 40 Miles Distance from Cardiff- 235 Miles
Bradford in North West
Distance from Manchester - 38.4 Miles Distance from Leeds - 9.9 Mles Main road connection - M62 & M606 Main Train Lines - Northern Rail
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Bradford in West Yorkshire Population of Bradford Region1.5 million Distance from Penines- 8.6 Miles
Bradford City Centre Population of City Centre293,171 people Size- 24.85 Miles2
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Precedent Study
Gordon Matta- Clark Real Properties : Fake Estates (1973-1973)
In the early 1970s, Matta-Clark discovered that the City of New York periodically auctioned off “gutterspace”—unusable small slivers of land sliced from the city grid through anomalies in surveying, zoning, and public-works expansion. He purchased fifteen of these lots, fourteen in Queens and one in Staten Island. Over the next years, he collected the maps, deeds, and other bureaucratic documentation attached to the slivers; photographed, spoke, and wrote about them; and considered using them as sites for his unique brand of “anarchitectural” intervention into urban space. Matta-Clark died in 1978 at the age of 35 without realizing his plans for Fake Estates, and ownership of the properties reverted to the city. The archival material that he had assembled went into storage and was not rediscovered until the early 1990s, when it was assembled into exhibited collages. Thus,Fake Estates has emerged not only as a mordant commentary on issues surrounding property, materiality, and disappearance that marked the whole of Matta-Clark’s career, but as artifacts of his own estate, reminders of the powers of absence and presence that govern our relationship to the past.
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Precedent Study
Rachel Whiteread - Transient Space, 2001-2002
Rachel Whiteread - Transient Space (Guggenheim, Berlin 27 Oct 2001- 13 Jan 2002) Throughout the 1990s, Whiteread exhibited a series of architectural sculptures exploring ‘the space in-between’, casting the negatives of a variety of spaces, including her apartment and a derelict terraced house in East London. The cast of these “invisble” spaces investigates the boundaries between the interior and the exterior, and where these meet. From these observations she makes of the banal, we are forced to re-familiarize ourselves with “an absence, a void, the uncanny spaces beneath the spaces of everyday life.” These objects have become representative of the events and memories contained within them, in a similar way that spatial voids do so. A key example of this is Whiteread’s ‘House”, cast from a post war-terraced house in East London. This piece conjures up a complexity of social issues-the fact that it is of a typical post-war house-conveys the living conditions and economic hardship of the time. The dismantling of the piece after three months conjured discussions of gentrification, communities and the state of London’s housing.
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Precedent Study Nottingham Caves
The city is built on top of a limestone cave system with over 450 individual voids and more being discovered. The Nottingham Caves Survey is working with the Caves of Nottingham Regeneration Project which is a two and a half year project (working closely with University of Nottingham), exposing and mapping the underground the world. Its aim is to appreciate the existence and age of the submerged structures and illustrate them in the manner never seen before to attract visitors. The caves are accessible physical accessible and also will be surveyed using a 3D scanner that captures the make up of the caves and recreates a virtual, interactive model of the hidden spaces. In doing so one is able to cut sections and planes through the model and go into greater detail to areas of interest. Our interest with this project is in the form of mapping void and reading the negative spaces. Showing the significance of void is how we have intended to highlight and understand Bradford’s economical situation. The methods undertaken in this experiment are highly applicable to our understanding of reading the city and give accurate depictions of quite intricate spaces that are difficult to document, map and understand. The technique of 3D scanning relates the void to the physical infrastructure of the city acknowledge their coexistence.
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Precedent Study Philip DuJardin
Dujardin’s photography captures the imagination of ‘fictitious architecture’. His series of photo collages are of the wildly sculptural buildings he designs and constructs using digital tools. “The key element of my work is the hyper-reality—to make people wonder if the building is real or not,” says DuJardin, of his realistic looking buildings in unnatural juxtapositions. His intention is to almost poke fun at the realm of whimsical, improbable structures created by some of the celebrity architecture studios. There is a distinct materiality in his works with the industrial grey tones of concrete and brick that give the buildings, as he says “a touch of archaeological monument”, as though they have been discovered and documented. Our interest in his work lies within the relationship of this spaces and conditions set fourth which bear a similarity to an exercise we had done shifting our voids and massing volumes surrounding our site, to the centre of it. This collation of shapes and spaces superimposed gave this strange unimaginable configuration that resembled some of the pieces shown here. Strangely, our completed model gave an more accurate impression of what a dense city centre should in theory look like.
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Precedent Study
Newark, NJ, as a model of a regenerated city.
The city saw rapid industrial growth which was met by a significant population rise during the 19th and 20 Century. During the second half, racial tension and urban decline began with a series of fraudulent Mayors. The 1967 riots resulted in a rapid population decline of the city’s middle class, which did not stop through the till the 1990s. The city lost about 130,000 residents. The city formally being predominantly white raced at 82.8% dropped to 26.3% by 2010. Current Mayor, Cory Booker, an exception to the previous Mayors has delivered a lenghty development plan to regenerate the city and bring back its bustling network of trade. Areas are rebounding and improving due to the abandonment and demolition of public housing projects, especially the Baxter Terrace area. Baxter Park as an example, a mixed-use development started in July 2011 that will include 400 apartment units along with shopping and recreation space, will replace the 500 units in the original Baxter Terrace development, which was demolished starting in 2008.
Newark Downtown Core District Redevelopment Plan and amendments to the ‘Gateway Plan’ The Downtown Core Area Redevelopment Plan adopted in 2004, works with the newly named ‘Gateway Plan’ which has been running for three decades and is responsible for the successful Hilton Hotel and the four Gateway commercial Buildings. The Urban Plaza Renewal Area has improved greatly the area of La Fayette street directly next to Penn Station to maximise the advantages of the land mostly converted into surface parking and single storey retail spaces. In the new Gateway plan, it amends these spaces to encourage more intensive use of the neglected remaining sites in the vicinity and see further improvements.
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Redevelopment Boundary
Zoning
Street Typologies
Green Space Distribution
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Precedent Study
Detroit home encased in ice in housing crisis protest
One of Detroit’s tens of thousands of abandoned homes has been encased in ice by two artists who wish to draw attention to the US housing crisis. Gregory Holm, a photographer and Matthew Radune, an architect, spent weeks spraying water on the home for the Ice House Detroit installation . They plan to bring in large lights on Friday to illuminate the house.
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Exploration Intentions
Diagram showing areas for possible investigation
Summary of our thought processes as a result of visiting Bradford
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Site Mapping & Analysis
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Historical Context
Understanding Bradford’s Historical Context
Irish potato famine
1850 Typhoid
Leeds Liverpool canal opened
1800
Public Health Act
Brad city
Cholera outbreak
Cholera outbreak Leeds & Bradford Railway Act
Building industry prosperity
S
Global Economic Recession
Bradford improvement act
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Textile trade makes Textile trade makes heavy losses heavy losses
dford becomes Bradford abecomes a city
Smallpox epidemic Smallpox epidemic
Global Economic Recession
1900
1900
Textile wages Textile reduced wages reduced 1950 by 1% by 1% Air raids Air raids
Plans adopted Planstoadopted to demolish 20,000 demolish slum 20,000 slum houses houses Textile strike Textile strike
1950
2000
2
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Demolished & Destroyed Buildings 1800-Present A recorded account of the closure and disappearance of buildings around Bradford city centre from 1800-Present day
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Until 1960 Bradford was predominantly a Victorian city with its public buildings and warehouses crowded into the city centre, smoke-blackened, many under-used and with inadequate provision for public spaces and squares. From the 1960’s onwards Bradford experienced a large amount of destruction and building. The Westfield Bradford project, a planned leisure and shopping complex for the area involved the demolition of a number of buildings dating back to the 1960’s on Forster Square and Broadway.
1800-Present
Site of the Manor Hall
Construction of Provincial House, 1970
Demolition of Provincial House 2002 to make way for Centenary Square
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Historical Context
Understanding Bradford’s Historical Context
‘a praty quick market toune’ ( pretty busy market town) - Leland - 1530s The Middle Ages Medieval Bradford was extremely small and only had 3 streets: Kirkgate, Westgate and Ivegate. It originally started out as a village by a ford but soon became a town when the villagers were allowed to hold a weekly market. Bradford already had a wool industry and as it grew more important in 1461, it was granted the right to hold 2 fairs, which attracted buyers and sellers from all over Yorkshire. It was in the late 17th century when Bradford really began to prosper when the townspeople began to make worsted cloth.
‘palaces of industry’ The Industrial Revolution By the late 18th century Bradford was transformed by the Industrial Revolution and as a result grew rapidly in the early 19th century. In 1800, the population of Bradford was 13,000, and the town had just one spinning mill. By 1850, the population had grown to 103,000, and the number of spinning mills had dramatically increased to 129. As Bradford’s industry grew so did its population. Huge profits were made by industry and trade and as a result these had created lives for industrial workers that were actually getting worse. The growth of Bradford’s industry occurred with little regard for the needs of its new population, and the result was truly vile social squalor. The textile industry declined sharply in the 1920s and 1930s resulting in mass unemployment in Bradford. However new industries came to Bradford, such as engineering and printing. More and more people worked in banking, insurance, civil service and local government. Regardless, the textile industry was still the largest employer in Bradford.
‘a city well know for its ethnic diversity’ Modern Times Bradford’s history since the Industrial Revolution has been marked by movement of people into the city. This included the 19th Century European merchants who came to sell Bradford’s textile products. The last phase of large scale immigration included those from the Asian sub-continent, mainly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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Bradford at the end of the Middle Ages
Bradford’s ‘dark satanic mills’
Halstead’s Weaving Shed (1885)
The Brigella Worsted Mills, Little Horton, 1928
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Socioeconomic Context_Macro Scale Understanding the Socioeconomic Context of Bradford
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Economic Analysis
Understanding the Social Context of Bradford
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Socioeconomic Context_Meso Scale Understanding the Social Context of Bradford
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KEY
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Social Profile
Understanding the Social Profile of Bradford
Bradford’s population is youthful, big and growing
Bradford has the third largest population of under 16s in any UK city outside of London
Forecast population change by broad age group Bradford 2008-2033 Bradford’s older age group is predicted to undergo the most rapid rate or growth.
Ethnicity Bradford has the third largest proportion of Black and Minority Ethnic people outside of London boroughs (behind Manchester and Birmingham) and also has a relatively young population structure. The composition of the population varies considerably throughout Bradford district in terms of both age and ethnicity.
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Population projections according to ethnicity in Bradford Population projections suggest that between 2007 and 2031 the largest growth will be within the Asian population. with the White population expected to remain fairly static, it will continue to account for more than half the population in 2031.
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UDP Analysis
Understanding the UDP Boundaries in relation to the Vacant and Derelict Sites
* all sites not in city centre; taken as a comparative proportion
572,489 ft2 VACANT SITE FOOTPRINT
[8.27% of area of entire city centre]*
725,154 ft2 DERELICT BLDG FOOTPRINT [10.47% of area of entire city centre]*
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KEY
143 To Let Signs
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Urban Fabric
Understanding the Urban Fabric in Bradford
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City Value
Understanding the Economic Value that can be given to Bradford City Centre
Bradford Property Values by Postcode £138,586: Bradford Average House Price £260,547: Detached £134,838: Semi-detached £104,375: Terrace £121,860: Flat
KEY
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Sales Volume
Average Price (ÂŁ)
House Prices and Sales Volumes- Bradford Metropolitan district
KEY The graph above shows the Land Registry data for December 2010 for the average house prices for Bradford. At present the figure stands at ÂŁ138,586. From December 2010 house prices declined from their peak at ÂŁ126,000 in early 2008 and have risen again in 2012. Growth in private renting supply The number of properties being advertised for private rent in the district has been increasing each quarter since the beginning of 2010 and shows no sign of abating. Overall, the last two years have seen a 60% increase in the number of properties being advertised for private rent. Homelessness Since reaching a low in the middle of 2010, homelessness in the district has continued to rise. Acceptances for homelessness are now at similar levels as 2009.
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Relative Build-up Proportionate Composition
TOTAL UDP FLOOR AREA
6,915,776 ft2
VACANCY WITHIN UDP
571,749.5 ft2 8.26%
DERELICTION WITHIN UDP
747,877.5 ft2 10.81%
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HERITAGE AREAS WITHIN UDP
3,534,535.5 ft2 51.11%
SHOPPING AREAS WITHIN UDP
1,216,652.75 ft2 17.59%
EXPANSION AREAS WITHIN UDP
575,275.5 ft2 8.31%
BUILT FOOTPRINT IN HERITAGE AREA
1,531,337.5 ft2 BUILT FOOTPRINT IN SHOPPING AREA
861,773.75 ft2 BUILT FOOTPRINT IN EXPANSION AREA
133,590.25 ft2
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Voronoi Analysis
Generating a 3D Voronoi based on built and vacant space in Bradford
Explaination of Voronoi The Voronoi diagram is a special kind of decomposition of a metric space, determined by distances to a specified family of objects (subsets) in the space. These objects are usually called the sites or the generators and to each such object one associates a corresponding Voronoi cell, namely the set of all points in the given space whose distance to the given object is not greater than their distance to the other objects.
(1) Built vs Unoccupied
BUILT SPACE Volume 233,802 m2
UNOCCUPIED SPACE Volume 120,555 m2
(2) 2D Voronoi
(3) Volume of Buildings
Diagram shows distribution of 64 UNOCCUPIED BUILDINGS in the given space, whose distance to the given object is not greater than their distance to the other objects.
Volume of buildings on-site = 233, 802m2
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(4) Number of Unoccupied Buildings on Site = 64
(5) Number of Unoccupied Buildings on Site = 64
(6) Voronoi Script Programming
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Voronoi Analysis
Generating a 3D Voronoi based on built and vacant space in Bradford
Logic To Voronoi INPUT = Constraint - Built Space 2,517,700 ft2] Compared to Total Unoccupied Space [1,297,646 ft2]
Voronoi Script [Distributes 64 UNOCCUPIED BUILDINGS in the given space whose distance to the given object is not greater than their distance to the other objects]
2,517,700 ft2 Volume of Built Mass on Site
Remove Voronoi Exterior
Create Outline to Cells
3D Voronoi Distributes Voronoi within mass Distribution Function Number of Unoccupied Housing Units
Organise closed Polylines by area
Loft Connections
Mesh + Smoothing
Moves one face to the location of duplicate face to prevent twisting
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Results = Representation of relationship of unoccupied buildings within built space.
6,924,724 ft2
2,516,623 ft2
1,297,643 ft2
572,489 ft2
725,154 ft2
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Chosen Site & Data Processing
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Study Area
Marking a 100 meter boundary for site analysis
The sample site area was calculated by using the Westfield site boundary and offsetting its footprint by 100m. Any building which lay inside, or had part of its footprint area in this zone was included in the sample. There were a total of 91 buildings which were surveyed in the project.
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Property Values around the Westfield Site Source: landregistry.gov.uk
KEY
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Economic Justification
The Economic drivers for a Westfield Shopping Centre in Bradford
“ By 2020 Bradford will be a vibrant, prosperous, creative, peaceful, diverse and inclusive place where people are proud of their shared values, and work together to secure this vision for future generations.” Bradford Community Strategy Bradford is perfectly located within West Yorkshire to make it into one of the areas premier shopping destinations. With a rising population of almost half a million, Bradford City Council were convinced that through the strategic implementation of the Westfield Shopping Centre into the heart of the city, it would become a catalyst for urban regeneration in the surrounding area, and would in turn promote further economic growth. Occupation of the site in early 2012, has forced Bradford City Council to publicly justify their decision to go ahead with the Westfield Scheme, on several occasions. It is clear that the economic deprivation and high levels of unemployment in Bradford, were key drivers in granting the project planning permission. These specific economic and socioeconomics factors are outlined within the Planning Documentation that completes the 2011 submission for a two-phase, smaller shopping centre, which will have a reduction of retail units from 100 to 75 (from 55ksqm to 51ksqm); - The new shopping centre would create thousands of new jobs in the area for local people. Westfield will work alongside the ‘Local Impact’ Scheme to ensure that local people are prioritised when jobs at the shopping centre are advertised. The Council hope that this will cause and influx of people into the city centre, as well as providing employment for the many unskilled residents of Bradford. - It would lead to the regeneration of the surrounding Cathedral Quarter and Little Germany, by creating an urban corridor between the existing UDP primary shopping area and the Northeast of the city. This would work by encouraging an influx of pedestrians horizontally across the site and into these parts of the city. The Council hopes that businesses would follow this flow of pedestrians, leading to the redevelopment of these mostly derelict parts of the city centre. - The Council believes that the “proposed development would constitute a suitable development in terms of uses, layout, design and facilities to be provided to create a most sustainable development”. - As part of phase 2 of the project, the construction of 4.5k m2 of office space and 162 apartments would aim to increase the economic value of the Westfield shopping centre, and in turn, the increase the annual GVA of the city centre. This would help re-brand Bradford as a quality retail destination and a central business area, full of “vitality”. - Westfield have submitted several applications throughout 2007-2009, altering the elevational studies, to ensure that the development will enhance the character of the 3 conservation areas that the site borders. Bradford City Council hopes that this will encourage further development and regeneration of these zones.
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Westfield Historical Context A Chronological Account of Westfield
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Comparative Scale Study
A comparison of the vacant site footprint to the Gherkin
The vast scale of the site, measuring 572489ft² in area, can be demonstrated through comparative analysis with the footprints of other popular buildings. From this we can see that 27.08 Gherkins, 1.04 Olympic Stadiums and 0.34 Shepherds Bush Westfields can fit into the Bradford site.
CITY CENTRE BOUNDARY
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27.0874075 Gherkins GHERKIN SITE FOOTPRINT [1 Gherkin = 21129ft² = 0.31% of city centre]*
572489ft² VACANT SITE FOOTPRINT [8.27% of area of entire city centre]*
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Comparative Scale Study
A comparison of the vacant site footprint to the Olympic Stadium
CITY CENTRE BOUNDARY
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1.04488561 Stadiums OLYMPIC STADIUM FOOTPRINT [1 Stadium = 693809ft² = 10.02% of area ]
725154ft² VACANT SITE FOOTPRINT [10.47% of area of entire city centre]*
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Comparative Scale Study
A comparison of the vacant site footprint to the existing Shepherds Bush Westfield Shopping Centre CITY CENTRE BOUNDARY
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0.34061333 Shepherds Bush Westfields BLG FOOTPRINT IN CITY CENTRE [1 Westfield Shopping Centre = 1614590ft²]
549950ft² VACANT WESTFIELD SITE FOOTPRINT [7.94% of area of entire city centre]*
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Comparative Scale Study
A comparison of the vacant site perimeter to the width of the UK entrance to the Channel Tunnel CITY CENTRE BOUNDARY
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24.2383676 Channel Tunnel Entrances CHANNEL TUNNEL ENTRANCE [1 Entrance= 148ft wide]
3587.308ft VACANT SITE PERIMETER
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Westfield Site Statistics Exploration of the Micro-Site Boundary
The Westfield site became the primary area of investigation in Bradford. A sample area had to be chosen as a sample representation of the occupancy/vacancy in the city and as a peripheral zone around which the Westfield site could be analysed. Data for the size, massing, typological breakdown and annual rental price per sq/ft was collected for all the buildings in the site and were compiled to form our major data set.
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BUILDINGS Included in Site Boundary Study
1,875,477 ft2 100% Study Area Site Boundary 21.61% 405,340 ft2
Westfield Area Site Boundary
611,030 ft2 32.58% Built Footprint Area 2,556,769 ft2 136.33%
Total Building Floorplate Areas
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology
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Data Set
Data Collected through using Methodologies
Snapshot of data collected in reference to derelict and vacant typologies within the small scale site boundary. See appendix for full data set.
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Westfield Area Comparison Study Occupancy and Vacancy on Site
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Reconfiguration of Space
Movement of Vacant and Derelict Space onto the Westfield Site
If all the vacant space was moved into the Westfield site, it would look like this...
If all the occupied space was moved into the Westfield site and it would look like this...
2.09 Westfield’s fit into the vacant space surrounding the site
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Building Typology Study
Total Buildings By Typology_Occupied Civic/Religious
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Occupied Commercial
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Occupied Leisure
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Occupied Residential
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Occupied Retail
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Vacant Commercial
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Vacant Residential
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Building Typology Study Total Buildings By Typology_Vacant Retail
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Economic Landscape Typological Breakdown
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Site Capital
Total Buildings By Typology
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Future Scenarios
What could the solution for Bradford be...
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Future Scenarios
What could the solution for Bradford be...
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The 7 solutions shown are conclusive outcomes to the evaluation of the land value through the different typologies -An Urban park would be clearly be the cheapest solution and also create an environmentally friendly product to enhance the social public space with in the business district. -An industrial solution would clearly be most economically viable allowing the space to be profitable, again with potentially minimal destruction the environment. - Commercial, Retail and Residential proposals would be solutions that dependant on the scale and expense of the projects but do not appear as suitable options. - Bilbao, having a project cost of 80million dollars is already the amount spent on the exisitng Westfield hole. Highlighting the notion of how uneconomically viable the Westfield project is at 275 million.
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Westfield Capital Total Buildings By Typology
As a ruthless capitalist developer, Westfield
“know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
£300,000,000 Total Build Cost
£275,000,000 Total Build Cost
405,339 ft2 Site Area
£4.93 ft2
Payback p/a 10 Year Plan
£20,000,000
Land Purchase Value Site Purchase 2001
£14.39 ft2
Rental Price in Westfield: Nottingham.
+ 345%
Overvaluation of Retail Space by Westfield, Bradford
Planning Applic
£18.59 ft2
Rental Price in Westfield: Nottingham.
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591,250 ft2
Lettable Retail Space
553,625 ft2
Lettable Retail Space
£49.67 ft2
£50.74 ft2
Retail Rentai p/a 10 Year Plan
Retail Rental p/a 10 Year Plan
cation 2003
Ammended Planning Application 2011
For the Bradford Wesfield development to be constructed so that the lettable retail space was equivalent to that of the rest of Bradford [£14.39], then the total build cost of the would have to have been
£79,687,262.84 - a figure which has already been superseded by preliminary site works.
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Intervention On-Site
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Theory
The Theory behind the On-Site Intervention
Investigations into the economic viability of the Westfield Site are of high importance in determining a sustainable solution for the people of Bradford. In order to demonstrate to the public, it was decided that we would have to create a physical representation of the value of different building typologies, and compare those to that of Westfield. As a result, the difference in price of land per ft2, would be obvious through our intervention on-site. Through the thorough analysis of latent data, we aim to prove the true economic viability of the Westfield Project, and bring this to the attention of those affected directly by Westfield’s proposal. This would draw a clear conclusion between the economic data collected, and the social repercussions of this data.
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Occupy Wastefield
Contacting Locals Connected to the Westfield Site
‘Occupy Westfield’, inspired by anti-capitalist movements in nearby Leeds, occupied the Westfield Site in May 2012 in order to draw attention to Bradford’s ‘hole’. The locals involved with the campaign wanted to highlight the fact that the Westfield Site has remained stagnant since early 2007. As part of the intervention, we contacted the Occupy Westfield Group to encourage them to participate in the on-site investigation into local opinions concerning the project.
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Site Intervention Concept Concept Intervention On-Site
Using the ÂŁ100 index based on the size of typology that can be afforded over a 10 year payback, the representation of our data was a series of demarcated areas in the Urban Park area of the Westfield site. In each case the area that is represented is the physical manifestation of the space which the capital of that typology occupies in the city. Stakes and boundary tape are used to connote the geo-locational nature of the project combined with the archeological associations with uncovering the latent, invisible realms of information that a particular site can hold. Each area has a finish which represents the materiality of the typology, allowing direct association with the site and its numerous potential uses. The Westfield site area boundary of the installation has no stake and tape outline, it is simply de-marked by a hole in the ground - ideologically representing the negative impact the development has had on the city and the physical void/hole which has been created.
Site Intervention Area
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Plan of Site Intervention Area
Perspective of Site Intervention Area
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Site Plan
Location of Intervention On-Site
Reasons for choosing location of site intervention - Situated around the controversial Westfield project which our project is based on - Volume of people passing though and the size of space available allows for people to interact with the installation - Close proximity to and links directly up to the city centre - The route is used by a wide variety of local people
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Main pedestrian route through the urban park
Entrance to the urban park
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Installation Process Setting-Up the Intervention On-Site
ÂŁ100 Index Textures to represent ÂŁ100 worth of typology within Bradford based on a 10 year payback.
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ÂŁ 100 Index Material costs on site and studio intervention = ÂŁ 100
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Installation Process Construction of the Intervention On-Site
In order to meet the criteria of the brief, the group response to the creation of an installation was to physically manifest the latent data onto the site. The main aim was to provide a geo-locational context to the research. The methodology allowed the project to be placebased and gather direct feedback from the people who are directly affected by the displacement of space in the city - the citizens of Bradford. The project was placed at what is a relatively busy intersection across the city, at the centre of the newly built urban park. The concept, aims and method of representation were met by a variety of differing opinions. Some commentators were very flippant , whilst some discussions with members of the public were extremely engaging, questioning the group’s response to site and providing insight into locally, context driven opinions of the space, the social/economic/political backdrop and several potential uses for the site which may have been overlooked in the research. Timelapse photography was used to document the process of installation building, public interaction and eventual deconstruction. This was supplemented by raw qualitative data in the form of recorded conversations with members of the public.
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Public Response Documenting the Reactions On-Site
Results of the interviews with members of the Bradford Community how they felt about the Westfield Site..
JOAN PARRINGTON What Do you think about the Westfield Project? “Terrible! - But they’re very powerful.” “The Buildings they have put up in other places I have not been impressed with, I think they’re monstrosities!” “Bradford deserves good quality architecture!” “It does matter, Its a very good, good place, there is a lot of beautiful architecture here!” “something introduced that’s environmentally sustainable” What do you think should go here? “I would be much happier with a lake and a park”
RICHARD AND ZOE What Do you think about the Westfield Project? “It ridiculous, its too expensive. How much land are they wasting right now?” “All these empty buildings. The Bradford council and Government are not putting enough time, money and effort to what’s already existing” “This potentially could be a nice beauty spot where people could come from around and enjoy the space.” “If I owned this piece of land I would give it back to Bradford and ask the people what they would want to do with it.” Was there any conversation with locals about what should be done? “No, the locals were never asked about their thoughts for the site.” “ I think they should open a nursery so people can come put plants into the ground and see how they prosper.”
RETIRED IT CONSULTANT What do you think Bradford needs? “Its a hard one, its certainly doesn’t need this.” “It doesn’t need another vanilla flavoured shopping centre.” “Nobody rates Bradford as a shopping centre, its a local market, and I like that. If you want anything substantial you go to Manchester or Leeds.” “This park is better than what was there before, which was better than the pile of rubble that was here before and better than the central house that was there before.” “I think the Odeon is a more immediate concern” What do you think should go here? “Town centre shopping is dying anyway, the internet has changed that.” “Being able to see the Cathedral was great. I’m glad you can it and the other buildings.” “Being able to walk through is nice, which we weren’t able to do before” “introducing retail is not a strategy for developing any sustainable economy.”
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EDITORIAL ARTIST, Telegraph and Argus, COLIN What do you think of the project? “Like most people, It get excited, it brings excitement when something’s happening” “We don’t really get sold anymore by their ideas” “If they didn’t want to do anything, Westfield would’ve sold the land - But then who would really want to buy it.” “This business is sucking in everything from the surrounding, Acroplois cafe shut solely because of this hole, they were promised that this site would generate income and a flow of people around the area” “It shows that nobody has got any confidence in Bradford, regardless of the economic situation, others things are happening” “With regards to the riots, why does that create a reason if the Croydon Westfield is going through with the Riots occurring in London just last year.” “Once the olympic village began, everything else stopped.” “We don’t know what the fabric of the building itself would be, especially being surrounding with all these Victorian Buildings.” “Its difficult to get excited with anything to do with this hole.” Do you think if it was built, it would potentially be successful? “They say a lot of people would have a bad taste in their mouth to do with it, but people once its built, they will just have to get on with it and then we wont have this massive hole” Dont you think there will be a massive by product of dragging the businesses out of the surrounding site? “Yeah, Kirkgate were particularly concerned with this development and voiced it continuously.”
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Presentation & Evaluation
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Website Development Data Implementation/Access
Creation of the Website The vast data set collated across the site encompassing the 91 surveyed buildings was processed to create a physical manifestation of the findings, but was also developed into a live accessible platform for continued use. A website plan/ layout was generated to systematically explain the research findings and develop a narrative to explain the current socioeconomic conditions of the built fabric in Bradford. The website aims to promote constant, up to date awareness of that which is physically latent on the site - the occupancy, vacancy and value of the [post]capitalist space. Bradford locals and the wider internet community are encouraged to visit the site and interpret the data / representation sets on their own terms. Social network promotion and actual Westfield physical site based links to the website enable people to access the whole collection of research findings. Users are then encouraged to comment on the website (through forum based communications) and to discuss and bring to attention the issues surrounding the site and its latent features. this creates a feedback loop where awareness, discourse and interaction flow back into the physical perception and possible use of the spaces in Bradford.
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Systematically creating a process flow for the accessible content.
Developing, populating and processing the data for public consumption / interaction.
Enabling the platform for user interaction and interpretation of the data. Creating a feedback process.
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Studio Installation
Re-presentation of Intervention in Studio
Relative Frame Sizes, Urban Park-Westfield
Studio Intervention Using the ÂŁ100 index based on the size of typology that can be afforded over a 10 year payback. The representation of our data will be a series of physical frames that demarcates this amount for each typology. We will construct the frames and hang these from the ceiling. Projection mapping will highlight the series of frames and project the stop motion video of our installation on site. We will give a in depth account of our study of value and space within Bradford and the mapping process of occupancy and vacancy.
Perspective View of Installation in Studio
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Sectional View of Installation in Studio
Elevational View of Installation in Studio
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Studio Installation : Construction Presenting the Findings in Studio
The process of expressing the ÂŁ100 index typological areas was repeated in a more solid way in the studio for a temporary exhibition. The areas frames were cut and assembled from timber lengths, then painted and finished to give a desired finish. The pieces were hung in concentric ascending area order from the studio space.
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VPT Studio Installation Projection Mapping Software
The Projection mapping software used is called VPT. This piece of software enabled us to play the stop motion video of our actual installation on site and play it in the centre of our studio intervention. Using a simple code within VPT we were able to highlight the surrounding frames incrementally that represents the ÂŁ 100 index that was employed on the site intervention. The installation casts shadows highlighting the difference between each area of each typology that can be bought with ÂŁ 100 in Bradford. The studio installation is an abstracted interpretation of our site intervention, however provides appropriate diagram of the issues highlighted from undertaking this study.
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Conclusion & Evaluation
Drawing Conclusions from Analysis of Bradford’s Capital Realism
Site Installation The site installation was on the whole successful. The data was appropriately represented in context and enabled the project to have a series of direct feedback encounters, where members of the public were engaged with the latent conditions of the site and were able to comment on a pressing issue in Bradford. The materiality of the installation allowed a very concise interaction with the varied possible typologies and gave a clean, understandable representation of the architectural nature which these scenarios would create. The level of public interaction was good throughout the day, with many people passing, and a large number stopping and engaging with the data. The views of the people of Bradford are key to bridging the boundary between development, capital and the citizen. Without public engagement, realism and feedback loops, Bradford risks falling prey to more underdeveloped, overvalued projects in the future, which, as the Westfield site has done, could create more fissures in the urban, social and economic fabric. We believe it is very important that data be fed back into real world, physical space, because this creates contextuality. A merely studio based application of data does not consider real world values, giving an “ivory tower” representation of conditions, and does not give rise to any actual consideration of the people and communities who are affected by the displacement of space, the value of capital or its physical manifestation. The documentation process of image recording and interview/conversation collation was insightful and allowed us to reflect on the process, methodology and articulation of our research.
Studio Installation The studio installation allowed the group to present the collated data in a much more abstracted, spatial sense. The concentric squares which represented the areas of typologies that could be constructed in Bradford for the standard £100 (payable over 10 years) model occupied the studio space in a very physical way. Mounting the areas in the vertical dimension skews their real world relationship with the ground, but instead allows a comparable, human scale comprehension of the value of space. The materiality and method of animation in the installation gave the data a conceptual feel, connoting the fluctuating variables of several spatial options and conveying the complex nature of economic relationship with space. The video installed in the centre of the piece gave allowed the project to be physically connected to the site installation, layering the contexts of studio and site together.
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Evaluation The project attempted to engage with a very complex set of variables which are apparent, yet latent in every urban context. The initial goal of the group was to understand the three dimensional patchwork which is created by varied occupancy and vacancy in the post-industrial city in a post-capitalist context. The initial survey data and representation allow this three dimensional picture to be built and comprehended, however it lacked large levels of complexity which were in affecting the site and creating the conditions of occupancy and vacancy. The first major step toward piecing together a holistic view of the spatial/economic factors on the site was to incorporate the policy guidance which was in effect in the region. This provided the group with a critical stance for evaluating the future of the city and the site. The typological make-up of the study area was key to beginning to break down the layered variables affecting the site. By understanding the levels of occupancy and vacancy by typology, we were able to begin to understand the holes in the economic fabric of bradford, and the most or least successful architectural forms in the city. Although our survey area was large and detailed, a wider area, incorporating more leisure, residential and civic/religious buildings would have been effective because it would have enabled the group to make conclusions about the wider social and cultural conditions of the city. The economic factor was the most influential part of the project in terms of development and progression. Once the complex variables of value over time in each typology and street were inputted, a much deeper critical analysis of the site was built. We were able to gauge the relative performance of Bradford in economic terms against other UK cities and were ultimately able to understand the viability of the Westfield site/scheme[s]. Having insight into the capital/economic drivers associated with the space allowed us to begin to propose new suggestions for the future programming of the site based on economic and typological sustainability. If the project were longer, these projections would have been much more thorough, with a view to beginning the complete reprogramming of the city - something which may be developed by the sixth year thesis projects. The installations in both contexts were successful. The studio installation was spatial and conveyed a rational view of the data succinctly which was easy to comprehend. The site installation/intervention had a few minor flaws. In hindsight, it would have been advisable to plan the field operations for a day with better weather, therefore ensuring more footfall and interest. The project required a little more clarity in terms of its overall aims and agenda, as some viewers required much explanation as to the purpose of the demarcations and their relevance to the site. The issue of the Westfield development on the site has been long running and has previously generated large amounts of media response. We would ideally have had more time to plan, orchestrate and develop the site installation so that media coverage was present and the data was engaged with by influential communities such as the Occupy Westfield group. This said however, the website development creates a stable platform which can be constantly updated to reflect the varying conditions of the city, and can be accessed by a far greater audience than the temporary installation. We would hope that the website’s feedback loops and running data collation are used by the communities affected by the Westfield development, so that the latent conditions in the space can be manifested in appropriate and considered ways.
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Future Scenarios
What could the solution for Bradford be...
Large Residential Development as a central community within Bradford City Centre
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Development of Temporary Urban Park to a permanent public space for use by local communities
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There is an Alternative... In Response to Mark Fishers Capitalist Realism
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References Journals The annual report of the joint director of public health (Bradford and Airedale) 2011/12. City of Bradford MDC, NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds The State of the District. Bradford District’s Intelligence & Evidence Base. Version 1 17th September 2010. Produced by The Partnership Service, Department of Performance and Commissioning, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Bradford District Local Economic Assessment 2010. City of Bradford MDC. Bradford Economy. Produced by the Strategic Delivery Unit, Department of Regeneration, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Bradford Housing Market Bulletin. Edition 13- ‘Euro Troubles’ July-September 2011. City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Strategic Information & Support (Climate, Housing, Employment & Skills) Population Trends No. 133, Autumn 2008. Office for National Statistics Bradford- Shipley Canal Road Corridor Masterplan. Socio-Economic, Housing and Commercial Market Assessment May 2011 Bradford’s Heritage Trail. City of Bradford MDC. Produced by Bradford City Centre Management. Books Architecture in Bradford, Ayers. J, Watmoughs Ltd; 1st edition (Dec 1972) Gordon Matta-Clark- Real Properties: Fake Estates (RPFE) 1973-1974 Rachel Whiteread- Transient Space (Guggenheim Berlin 27 Oct- Jan 2002)
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Online Sources www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8093002.Work_starts_on_Westfield_site__urban_garden_/ www.bradfordfacts.com/future-bradford/born-in-bradford/ www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_theme_page.jsp?u_id=10585545&c_id=10001043&data_theme=T_POP www.bradlibs.com/localstudies/vtc/lostbradford/introduction.htm www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ITbradford.htm www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/ www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9315382.__275m_Bradford_Broadway_plan_is_approved/ www.flickr.com/photos/bradford_timeline/5177960364/ www.panoramio.com/photo/1659753 www.implosionworld.com/bradford.htm www.bradford.gov.uk/bmdc/regeneration/city_park www.centenarysquare.co.uk/ www.brad.ac.uk/ www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/bradford/article_1.shtml www.openwriting.com/archives/2009/05/bradford_1.php www.information-britain.co.uk/history/town/Bradford97/ www.bradfordfacts.com/historic-bradford/hidden-bradford-exploring-goitside/ www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/antiquary/third/vol04/occupations.html www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/BradfordTheatres/EarlyDramaInBradford.htm www.hospitalsdatabase.lshtm.ac.uk/hospital.php?hospno=227 www.urbislighting.com/gbu-en/Projects/Pages/Perla-lights-Alhambra-Theatre-Bradford.aspx www.arup.com/Home/Projects/City_Park_Bradford.aspx www.localhistories.org/bradford.html www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/bradford/gallery_21.shtml
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